Kindred Spirits
by perfectsmuttyvampire
Summary: War broke out, and war was fought. And war changed the entire world."
1. Proclamation

**_TITLE: Kindred Spirits_**

**_SUMMARY: Nuclear war has been fought. Communtication between the countries impossible, and society has broken down. America has a new Government and new laws have been implicated. But Bella Swan is determined they won't ever beat her down…_**

**_WARNING: Death, violence, rape, angst, smut._**

**_PAIRING: It will be Bella/Emmett eventually._**

PROLOGUE

"The following will come into effect immediately. Anybody who fails to react promptly to instil these laws into their lives will be punished severely. Any deliberate attempt to disobey will be dealt with promptly and severely. In light of recent events, a decision has been taken by the Centre to instigate the following laws. We emphasize that this is law. The following laws are now the basis of this society.

Number One: All women who are members of a Class One family must marry within a month. If you are already married, you are exempt. However, if your husband is Missing in Action, then you will be formally declared a widow, and you will marry again. If your family fails to find you a suitable husband, a husband will be chosen by the Centre. If your husband is from another Class, then your marriage will be declared null and void and you will marry within the specified time limit. You will adhere or submit to the consequences.

Number Two: Women are no longer their own property. You are no longer allowed to have a job. You no longer have any rights to an education. You have no right as an individual. You will not be permitted to leave your home without a male escort. You belong to your father, closest male relative or your husband, depending on your circumstances. This applies to women from all classes.

Number Three: Any woman from a Class Two or below family will marry within two months. If you are already married you are exempt. If your husband is MIA, then you will be formally declared a widow, and must re-marry within the specified time limit. You are not permitted to marry a man from a Class One family. If this is the case, your marriage will be declared null and void, and you will marry within the specified time limit. If you fail to find a suitable husband, a husband will be chosen by the Centre.

Number Four: All men will be immediately employed in some form of labour work: Men from Class One families as managers and owners, men from Class Two and below as labourers. No exceptions. If you believe you are exempt, you must put your reason in writing and submit it to the Centre by the end of the month. Your situation will be removed. You will not start work until a conclusion has been reached.

Number Five: Exemptions are the disabled, whether physically or mentally.

Number Six: A curfew is now in place. No person is to be on the street after nine pm. Anybody caught breaking curfew will be arrested, charged and fined.

Number Seven: You are not permitted to carry any item that could be used as a weapon. No axes, knives, guns, or work tools are to be carried on the streets. Anybody caught with any weapon will be arrested, charged and jailed for a year.

Number Eight: Assault, whether physical or sexual, murder, rape, and violence are illegal. Any person who commits these offences will be arrested, charged and jailed for ten years. Anybody who is found guilty of murder will be hanged. We ask women to remember that you may not bring charges of assault or rape against your husband.

Number Nine: The right to a trial with a jury is suspended. All legal judgements will be made by a Centre-appointed judge.

Number Ten: A child is any male under the age of sixteen. Girls may marry at fourteen, and must be married by sixteen. Girls become adults when they marry. This concludes the new regulations. You will be informed immediately of any changes. Ignorance is not an excuse for disobedience.

I turned away from the sign feeling honestly sick to my stomach. So that's it. No warning and no arguing; now the thing is done. Of course there had been rumours that the centre were planning something like this – and I, like so many others, had ignored those rumours, thinking they couldn't possibly be true. War broke out, war was fought. And war changed the entire world.

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Please Review! I won't carry this on if I don't get a decent response! I love you all...and a Twilight one-shot, full of lemons, is on the way!


	2. Get Used To It

**_Get Used To It_**

BPOV

"I won't!"

"You've no choice. It's the law."

"Hang the law!"

"Watch your tongue, Isabella."

"What, the Centre have ears in the walls now? I'll not marry a man I've never met!"

"It's not your decision to make! I am your father, I decide what's best for you!"

"Bollocks! Before the War, you didn't give a shit about what I did. Let me choose, you sign the paperwork and I'll never tell if you don't!"

"You couldn't find yourself a husband in a month, and you know it!"

"Oh, and you could? I've never met the man, there's no way in hell I'll settle down and marry him!"

"Why are you making things so bloody difficult? At least meet him." He sounds defeated now. I know he doesn't like this any more than I do, but I'm so blisteringly angry, I can't think straight.

"I'm going -" Going where? Not allowed out any more. Not without a male escort. Fuck it all. I storm up to my room, slam the door. I don't care that I'm acting like a child.

I fell asleep at god knows what time. I was woken up by a banging on the door.

"We've come for your daughter."

"What do you want her for?" My father sounds worried. Scared. When the Centre comes knocking, it is rarely good news.

"Father?"

"Isabella, go back to bed."

"You must come with us. Immediately, Miss Swan."

"Where am I going?"

"We received information you did not wish to marry. You will come with us now, and meet your future husband. If you protest, you will be arrested. If you continue to protest, you will be appropriately dealt with."

"You have no right to take her. She's got a month before she has to marry. And where does this information come from?"

"We have sources. We do not have to reveal them. If you stand in our way, Sir, we will take her by force."

"Over my -"

"Give me a moment. Let me dress, wash."

"Five minutes. If you run, Miss Swan, we will kill your father."

Their faces are cold, lifeless. They show no emotion. I don't run. I do as they ask, go back downstairs go with them.

I take careful note of exactly what I see walking through the Centre. Goddamn them. I curse them, silently, inside my head. I'm locked in a room. Told nothing, only that I must wait. So I do. But not patiently. Footsteps come and go. And I bang on the door, loudly, shouting.

"Let me go! I've done nothing wrong! Let me go! I'm not marrying. You're wasting your time."

But nobody came. When I had to stop shouting, when my voice gave out, day had given way to night, and twilight was gathering outside my window. Sounds of a scuffle in the corridor outside make me sit up, listen hard. A conversation drifts in. Somebody is clearly struggling to get away.

"You're a hard man to find, McCarty. Damnit, stop struggling."

"Fuck you!"

"Watch your tongue."

"Watch your face, coz I swear, when I get out of this, I'll be kicking it in so far there'll be an imprint on the back of your skull!"

"Threats don't help, McCarty. Your in enough trouble."

"Get bent, douche bag." I raise my eyebrows at the door. Seriously, does this guy have a death wish? I mightn't like the Centre, but fighting them off? Jeez.

And then the door flies open and fifteen stone of solid muscle and height is hurled into the cell with me.

The man at my feet is shirtless, sweaty, muscled, furious, with tied wrists - and is unbelievably cute. The door slams just as he struggles to his feet.

"Let me out!" The door is kicked. Hard. He does something complicated with his hands, their free from rope and he beats the door with fists and feet, bellowing profanities. Threats, curses and swearing. Directed at the Centre. When he stops from sheer lack of breath, the man outside the door laughs. I shiver involuntarily. He barely even glances at me.

"You might as well get to know each other. After all, you're getting married in a week."

I swear my heart stops beating.

EPOV (Earlier that day)

They came for me just before twilight. They kicked down the door. Knocked me out too. Bastards. By the time I came round, I was tied up in the back of a van, speeding through the bloody countryside, speeding towards the Centre. I wasn't thick, I knew where they were taking me.

"Let. Me. Go."

"No. The Centre has ordered your presence. You're going to meet your wife. And you'll answer to us why it took us all damn day to find you, and why we had to beat your location out of your brother." Ice-cold rage washes through me.

"If Jasper's dead, I swear, you'll suffer for it. I'll make it my mission not to rest until you're dead too."

"He's alive, the trash. He told us fairly quickly, when we told him if her didn't tell us, we'd kill his little wife." My heart jerks. Alice.

"If you've hurt her -"

"They're both alive."

"And who said I wanted to get married?"

"Oh, you two'll get on fine. She's been screaming that she doesn't want to marry all damn morning."

I fought and struggled all along the corridor they dragged me down. They threw me into a cell. I vaguely caught a glimpse of long brown hair as somebody stepped backwards to avoid being trampled. I ignored her, pounding on the door, wrenching hands free of rope, slamming the door with everything I've got. When I stop from sheer lack of breath, the man outside laughs. And drops the ultimate bombshell.

"You might as well get to know each other. After all, you're getting married in a week."

She leaps to her feet seconds after he stops talking.

"Are we hell!"

"Miss Swan, watch your tongue. I could get any charge against you I wanted in seconds. You're only a woman." His footsteps recede. Anger flashes in the dark girls eyes.

"Bastard." She punches the wall. Hard.

"Did that help?"

"Yes."

"Did it hurt?" She gives me a withering stare.

"No."

She sat in sullen silence.

"I'm Emmett." She heaves a sigh. She meets my eyes for the first time.

"Isabella. Bella."

She falls asleep shortly after that. I watch her sleep for a while. She mumbles a little, but nothing I'm able to distinguish. She's pretty, in that delicate-pale way. Ok, she's damn sexy. But I know nothing about her. I don't want to marry her, for Pete's sake. I fall asleep about three feet from her, my back against the wall.


	3. Waiting Games

Waiting Games

EPOV

I woke up with a stiff neck to an empty cell. Bella has gone. She can't have struggled much - I would have heard it.

I don't know how many hours passed before she was shoved back inside - brutally. Her T-shirt is ripped now, her hair knotted. She stumbles, trips, lands on hands and knees. Hard. There's no murmur of pain, no whisper of hurt. Except she hit the floor hard enough to cut her knees and hands to ribbons and maybe sprain something. The door is slammed behind her. In the resulting silence, she stays on her hands and knees, hair hanging forward, hiding her face. I hear her exhale, her breathing slightly laboured - as if she'd been running. Or screaming.

"Isabella?" I might call her Bella to myself, but I'm not sure what she wants me to call her to her face.

"It's Bella."

"Are you hurt?"

"What's it to you?" She hauls herself up off the floor. She hides her face with her hair.

"What did they do to you?"

"Why do you care so much?"

"Trying on the husband hat for size."

She looked up so fast I could have sworn I heard the bones in her neck crack. A fresh bruise bloomed on a cheekbone, jawbone, and a nasty looking cut on her lip is bleeding freely.

"What did they _do_?"

"I told them I wasn't marrying anyone and they tried to persuade me to change my mind." Her lip curls. "Morons."

"Did it work?"

"I told them I'd marry you if they guaranteed my father's life."

She refuses to be drawn beyond that. But they must have done something to her to make her change her mind. She strikes me as stubborn. She washed the blood off calmly, taking off the ripped shirt,, using it as a towel. She winces but makes no sound when she touches ribs. Livid purple bruising is arranged in neat pattern across her chest. She pulls the top back on, sits on the narrow bench, tips her head back, rests it against the wall.

"Do you hate me that much?"

"I don't hate you. I don't know you well enough to hate you - or form any kind of opinion on you really. I hate the Centre, for what they're making us do."

"Don't, Bella. Don't say that. I'm getting the feeling that they'll take any excuse to kill you."

"Thanks for the warning."

"How did this happen?"

"The world went crazy, decided to get themselves weapons that can kill, kill entire countries in seconds." She pauses, considers her next words very carefully. She glances at the door, gets up, walks swiftly to me. She drops her voice to a whisper, murmuring urgently in my ear. What she tells me makes me start, and send shock waves crashing through me. "Emmett, whisper. Let them think we're whispering the things lovers whisper. Don't react, do you hear me? I have to trust you. Because if they take me, if they kill me, someone has to keep on. I know what they've done to your parents. You hate them like I hate them, so I'm going to trust you. You do know that they think that America is all that's left, don't you? They can't get anything from Europe, Asia, the East. Nothing. It's been silent for months. Months - ever since the bombs stopped falling. And in the air, Emmett - the constant stench of death. Don't you see - if America is all that's left now, if what is here is what is left of the human race, then we have to fight. We have to get out of this. We'll have to fight the Centre." If this were anywhere else I'd leap to my feet, start shouting, but I can't.

So instead, I turn my body full towards her, lift her hair from her ear, lean in close. I know that if they were to look in on us now, they'd think I was kissing her neck, seducing her. She tilts her head forward, resting it in the hollow of my shoulder, playing up to the illusion.

"Are you bloody crazy? You want to get up a rebellion against the _Centre?"_

"Think about it," she insists, her voice barely loud enough for me to hear. "Just stop and think. Can you imagine it, Emmett? A new world, a braver world, a world where guns and marriage laws don't exist, where women are what they always were, and when men can be free to walk the earth and work in whatever profession they choose."

"And how would you plan to fight them? With your words? As witty as you are, Bella, you couldn't save the Earth with your words."

"We'd try that first. It isn't just me. There's a network. We're talking first, then, if we have to, we'll use violence."

"I hope you know what you're doing." Hope is starting to bud and grow inside me. Can she do it? This dark eyed girl, with the ability to withstand torture, with a vision shining like the City of the Light I'd heard my father rave about - before he died. This dark girl, who is so clearly important in this "network", can se do all this, lead a world all but destroyed into a future that she honestly believes will be so much better.

"Of course I do, Emmett." She pulls away from me, looks me in the eye from under long lashes. "Are you going t turn me in?"

"No."

I watched her sleep again that night, lying on the floor just feet from her. She looks fragile in her sleep. How can she be a rebel? But I'm going to trust her, because something pulls me inexplicably to Isabella Swan. Don't know what it is. But it's something, and I'm OK with going along for the ride.


	4. You, Me, A Rebellion

**_You, Me, A Rebellion_**

EPOV

I swear, I don't know how it happened. I didn't plan it, I don't even know it happened. I hadn't had any dreams that could have instigated it. But I woke up, and she was less than an inch away from my face, her lips only two inches from mine, her little body pressed against me. I had an arm slung casually around her waist and one of her hands was resting on my hip. You don't get any prizes for guessing what woke her up.

I forgot where I was, who she was, what we were going to be to one another - the fact is, I'm only human, it was morning, and I had a very hot girl in my arms. I automatically nuzzled her neck, brushing my lips over her pulse point and pulling her closer. Her eyes flew open like she'd been shot. She gazed at me for half a second, glanced down, saw the tent in my jeans and leapt to her feet.

"What the hell, Emmett!" she shouted, glaring.

"Oh, shit, Bella, I am so sorry! I swear, I didn't think, it just kinda happened!"

"What, it's normal for you to wake up with an erection pressing into a girls stomach and kissing her neck?"

"Bella, I was half-asleep, and I had a ho - I had a girl in my arms and I just reacted!" Shit. And of course she's noticed.

"What were you going to say there?"

"Nothing," I mutter, jumping up. "Doesn't matter."

"Oh no, you don't, Emmett. Start talking, fast."

"I was going to say 'I woke up with a hot girl in my arms.' Are you happy now?" Her jaw is practically on the floor. She closes it, opens it again, but we get interrupted.

She was taken away, questioned. When she came back, she was pale. She was defiant with the man who brought her back, swearing fit to bust. But when he'd gone, when we'd listened to his footsteps recede and fade, when we knew we were alone, she slid down the wall, and hid her face from me. She didn't make a sound, nor did she move for hours. It was dark outside the window when she stirred. I spoke for the first time, my throat hoarse.

"Bella?"

"They've killed my father. My brother is now a wanted man."

"I'm sorry, Bella." Silence. Clearly, that wasn't what she wanted me to say. "I didn't know you had a brother."

"I do - or I did. Depends really, on whether or not he's still alive. They wanted to know if I knew where he'd go. Thing is, I don't."

"But you know what he's doing."

"Naturally. They shot my father when they couldn't find him. I'm guessing they know what my family is by now."

"Then why didn't they take you?"

"I'm just a woman, Emmett. What would I know?"

They give us dinner. It takes me a while to realise we haven't been fed for three days. Bella attacks her food then turns wickedly glinting eyes on me.

"I haven't forgotten you know, Emmett. About earlier."

"What are you talking about?" I feign ignorance, gazing back at her. She ambles over to me, whispers in my ear, just like yesterday . Except this time, she isn't doing it to tell me about aplot to take over the world.

"Oh, you know, Emmett McCarty. You think I'm hot. You got a little carried away this morning, then told me it was because you had a hot girl in your arms." I take her chin in my thumb and forefinger, pinching slightly.

"It was a contributing factor." She looks right at me, no sign of any emotion on her face. Then she smiles - and I get the feeling that this is what a rabbit feels like just before the fox pounces.

"Oh, really? Well I guess the fact that you think I'm hot will help in this arrangement."

"I guess it could. You know what else might help?" I seize her by the waist and drag her impossibly close, perching her on my lap. She looks momentarily shocked, arching her back to get away, but I put my lips against her ear, whispering, feeling her shiver at my breath on her neck.

BPOV

God damn, I'm in serious trouble. _I'm_ playing this game. He isn't supposed to not only play back but play better. His lips at my ear, his breath on my neck, one hand at my waist, the other tangled gently in my hair, making sure I stay where I am. I daren't even _think_ about our position.

And my traitorous body decides it likes this a lot. And when he whispers, I not only shudder, I damn well moan.

"It might help if I _tasted _you, Isabella." And, I moan, he smiles - feel his lips curve at my ear and then those lips are on mine, kissing me in hot flurry of teasing desire. I feel the desire ricochet through me and I kiss him back. His tongue traces my lips and invades me. I surrender. And the surrender feels good, especially when he licks, just gently, along the tip of my tongue, drawing into his mouth, sucking the tip just gently.

He lets me go, eyes gleaming. I'm a little dazed, and my breath comes in gasps.

"I can play too, Isabella."

_**A/N: Just a nice little bit of teasing to lighten the mood just a tiny bit. In the next chapter, it is all going to kick off… Reviews, please? They make the updates come quicker... and they make Emmett just that little bit more playful ;)**_


	5. Everything You Know

Everything You Know

BPOV

He smirks at me when I wake up the next morning. Snarl. I officially hate him.

Except that's the biggest lie I have ever told.

We aren't given even a minute to discuss it. He doesn't protest when they restrain him. I leap for them, am pushed away. I land hard on the floor, grit my teeth against the agony that flares through my ribs. But when they take me, seizing me by the hair, dragging me to my feet, he roars rage at them. The sound of his voice startles me. The man holding my hair switches his gaze to my throat, hauling me up onto my toes.

"You let her go!" The man holding me looks from one to both of us, and then a smile that makes me shudder creeps across his face.

"Am I seeing love? Do you have feelings for him, little girl?" I remain stubbornly silent. He tightens his grip. My hands fly to his, scrabbling helplessly. "Answer me, you, or I'll kill her here and now." He directs a look at Emmett. I glance that way, begging him with my eyes not to give in, not to tell him.

"Don't give him anything, Emmett," I rasp, glaring at the man. Emmett gazes at me. Emotions rage across his face. My vision is blurring round the edges. I can't breathe.

"Let her go! Take me, do whatever you want to me, but let her go!"

I'm released. Stars are flying in my vision. I hit the floor with a jarring thud. Breathing hurts my chest.

"It isn't you we want. We want her. We want her to tell us where her brother is."

EPOV

What I saw in those next few hours will haunt me forever. They tortured her. My Bella. My Bella. Dear God. I don't love her, OK? I swear I don't love her. But she does weird things to my head, and what she did today - it screws my head up just that little bit further. But I'm not in love.

They tied her to a chair and then they started questioning her. She stared off into the distance. They were patient for an hour.

"Where is he, Bella? We aren't going to hurt him…" He never got to finish that sentence. She started laughing in his face.

"Fucking hell!" she gasped, tears streaming down her face, laughing so hard she nearly started coughing. "How thick do you think I am, you lunatic? OF COURSE you'll fucking hurt him! You'd kill him!"

"I wouldn't laugh at me, Bella -"

"Shut up, James." He looked furious.

"You know my name."

"I also know where you live, that you're married to Victoria, your son is called Laurent and he's in the Army. Before the War, you worked for Mechanics LTD. Don't fuck with me, James."

He'd cracked her so hard across the face. Blood had dripped from a new cut on her lip. Her lips curved upwards, even as I fought the ropes that held me away from her. He'd held his hand out.

"Every question you refuse to answer, I put a little cut on you, Bella. Every question you don't answer, I'll cut. And we'll see just how defiant you really are."

He did, too. She ignored him. Completely. She looked at me, winking. She never made a sound.

"Where's Edward, Bella?" No reply. The first time that knife went into the soft skin of her arm, I flinched. He drew patterns on her arms. The blood ran down, and she never even flinched. Not a sound escaped her lips. But as the hours passed, she got weaker. She was so pale. They tortured her for I don't know how long. She bore it in total silence. I watched that knife go through her flesh like a hot knife through butter. He carved her up. And she never even winced. He put the knife aside eventually.

"You want to see him get hurt?" he demanded, brusquely, pointing at me. He was given a fresh blade and he advanced on me. "We'll start on him, if you don't give us you."

"You wanted my brother five minutes ago. Five minutes ago, it was all about my brother, and endless demands for me to tell you where he is. By the way, I haven't got a damn clue where he is. I'm sure he's safe though. He's good at hiding. He's very, very good at hiding. And yet now, you want me. You need to make your mind up, mate."

"Witty, isn't she?" he asks me. "I can see why you love her." Bella snorts quietly from behind me.

"We've kissed once. I don't think that constitutes _love_, fuckwit."

"Oh good. Then he won't mind particularly if I fuck you."

I couldn't stop him, and Bella was too weak to fight him off. All the blood she'd lost - when he ripped her jeans and panties away from her and had her on the floor, ignoring the fact that she had broken ribs, extensive blood loss and I don't know what was going on in her head. She gave all the strength she had left to fight him but she wasn't strong enough to get him off her. I struggled, but the blow across the back of my head sent me into darkness. The last thing I saw before the darkness descended was her chocolate eyes turning towards me, widening in horror, as he moved over her.

BPOV

I could feel him inside me, but he didn't register in my head. I could feel him thrusting against me, hear his noises, but all I could see was Emmett slumped forward, unconscious. It wasn't right, there was something wrong about seeing big, strong, reliable Emmett slumped, helpless. I pushed against his chest, trying to shove away the man on top of me. He slammed my wrists into the ground, overpowering me easily. I knew, somewhere in my head, that he was raping me, that he was trying everything to hurt me in the one way he knew how, but all I was worried about was Emmett. When he finished with a shuddering gasp, and yanked himself away from me, I felt pain for the first time. The darkness was closing in. I knew I didn't have long until I either passed out or threw up or both. Emmett stirred. He groaned. He swore. James yanked me upright by my hair and my own personal darkness closed in.

We came round back in the cell. Someone had redressed me, dressed my arms. A dull ache between my legs was all that remained of James, of what he'd done to me. Emmett is watching me.

"Hi." I say, hauling myself upright. A blast of pain shrieks through my ribs. "Fuck, that hurts."

"Bella, will you answer me something?"

"What?"

"Are you bloody _insane_? Are you _human_? They were fucking _torturing_ you, cutting you like a piece of meat and he fucking _raped _you and you never made so much as a sound of anything in all those hours. But when you're here, in front of me, you show me you're hurting." I shrug and wince. Bad idea.

"They want me to show pain. I don't believe in giving the Centre what they want. Not my brother, not my secrets, not my pain."

"Jesus, Bella. I sat there watching and I -"

"Emmett, you were _tied up_. Besides which, I don't _need_ a knight in shining armour."

"Or is it just that you never had one?"

EPOV

I'm frustrated, I'm awe-struck and I'm very confused. My head is pounding and the old temper is creeping up on me again. God damn. Why won't she let me in? She acts like this is perfectly normal.

"No, Emmett, I've never had a knight in shining armour come riding to my rescue. Nor do I need one, so it's all good. I can take care of myself."

"Bella, have you ever let anybody past that ice-queen façade? Have you ever let anyone see the vulnerable part of you before?"

"No."

"So I'm going to spend the rest of my life married to a woman whom I will never, ever be able to read because she's too scared to let me in."

"I'm not scared!"

"Like hell you're not! You're fucking terrified! You might not be scared of torture, or scared of rape, or scared of pain but you're scared about your brother. You're scared of letting down your guard."

"I'm not afraid of anything. Edward can take care of himself."

"You can't run from it forever, Bella. Walls can crumble, and everything falls eventually. You might want to think about letting someone in. Someone will have to catch you when you fall, Bella. If you've got nobody, then how are you getting through life?"

"I don't need to let you in to marry you. All I need to do is get it over with."

"And how are you going to that?2

"I'm going to marry you tomorrow, we're going back to my house - I know you don't have a place, and everything may father owned is now mine - and then I'm going to fight, Emmett. I'm going to bring the Centre down." She looks me straight in the eye. "You're either fighting alongside me or you're fighting against me. Your decision, Emmett. But I am a soldier, first and foremost, and I will fight without or without you and your approval."

"Then I fight with you. And when we get out of here, I want you to teach me something."

"Teach you what?" She looks curious, her brown eyes questioning, but suspicious at the same time.

"Teach me how to take their torture. Teach me to be like you."

Sheer horror flashes across her face. It's followed by disbelief and then, respect creeps into the mix.

"We'll discuss it when we get out."

* * *

A/N: So, Emmett knows what he wants - but does Bella know what she wants? will she be giving Emmett what he wants, or will she refuse? Next chapter to follow... by Tuesday night.


	6. Difficult Is An Understatement

Difficult Is An Understatement.

BPOV

I didn't sleep that night, instead watching him with my legs drawn up to my chest, chin on my knees. He looked closer to softness when he slept, but an odd sense of security radiated from him. When he'd kissed me, I felt something I'd not felt for ages, not since before the war - I'd felt _safe._ Protected. When he'd held me close, I'd felt like I couldn't be harmed. And I'd felt that same indefinable sense of security when he'd married me the next day, squeezed my arm whilst we faced James and the rest, whilst the priest married us. He hadn't let me go, always touching my arm, just making sure, I think, that I knew he was still there.

He let me go only when we'd been let go, and the van we'd been brought in had driven off. We'd watched it out of sight. Then I turned around and led him, silently, inside the house. It had been trashed. Clearly there'd been a struggle. I felt a twinge of pride mixed with a rush of grief. At least my father had gone down fighting. At least he hadn't just given in. But the voice in the back of my head niggles at me: if he hadn't fought them, would they have let him live? I refuse to think it, trying to turn the voices off, looking round at the mess.

"Well," I say, keeping my voice firmly controlled. "We've got some tidying up to do, I think. But firs - and I don't know about you - but I stink. I'm taking a shower. I'll get you…I'll um…I'll get you a towel. You can take Edward's old room. It's first on left, straight up the stairs. I'll leave clean sheets - I assume you know how to make a bed? - and I'll get you some different clothes. Edward's things won't go near you - but my father's might. You can contact your brother tomorrow - I know everything, before you ask - and he can sort you out with your own things. So showers, food and then clean-up, I think. Make yourself comfortable."

Safely in the shower, with the sound of the water, I let myself cry. I wept for my father, for my brother, for my pain - and for Emmett and I, who are living like strangers in a marriage neither of us wanted. Even though I feel nothing for him, even though he is my friend at best, I want his happiness. And he won't get it with me. With the soldier he has asked to teach him how to stand torture.

EPOV

She disappears upstairs. I'm not a complete idiot. She'll cry later, when I'm not there to see it. She's not as good at hiding as she thinks she is. I survey the wreck of the front room. I may as well do her a favour and rearrange the furniture so she doesn't walk back into a bombsite. I put chairs back into an upright position and straighten the sofa. The wood coffee table is broken, but I reckon Jasper could fix it. I put books back on the bookcase, noticing all the Austen classics, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Bronte sisters. I'm guessing Bella. I collect a photo frame with the glass smashed. Bella, a man I assume is her father and a tall, muscled, young guy with messy hair and green eyes. His arm is very firmly around her waist and their father is standing just behind Bella, his arm around her, his hand on his son's shoulder. Bella looks like her father, I conclude, and I assume that Edward takes after their mother. He looks nothing like his sister, excepting that the shape of their eyes is the same, and their colouring is similar.

"Shower's free." She smiles at me. "That was taken a few months before the war. Before Edward and I joined up." She motions at the stairs. "I left a towel on the bed. First on the left. There's enough hot water. At least the Centre got the basics right. And thanks for readjusting my furniture."

She's whipped up an omelette and chips when I get back down, having showered and changed.

"I sent a message to Jasper. He's on his way. He should be here soon."

"Bella, how do you know my brother? And don't say it's because you know everything."

"I know Jasper through the organization I'm part of. The Resistance. Jasper is a valued member of our network. He asked me to let you know before he showed up. He said you could yell at him when he showed up. He wants to tell you himself why he never told you and what exactly he does for us." I open my mouth, close it again.

"I don't think anything my brother does could possibly shock me any more."

When he does put in an appearance, he looks a bit sheepish. Bella embraces him, whispers swiftly in his ear, takes the bag from his hand and vanishes up the stairs. He sits me down in the living room.

"Are you angry with me, Emmett. Alice kept on and on saying that I should tell you, but I didn't want you to worry, I guess. You'd've tried to stop me, and I couldn't let you do that."

"I'm not angry with you, Jazz. I'm disappointed that you didn't think you could tell me."

"Secrecy. I didn't know how much I could tell you without giving you too much, so I didn't tell you anything."

"Can you tell me know?"

"He can. Unless he'd rather I told you." Bella has reappeared. I start. I never heard her. She looks at me. "I need to tell him - Emmett, shall you tell him, or shall I?"

"You tell him."

"He wants to -"

"I want Bella to teach me how to take torture. I want to fight too." Jasper sits in silence for three seconds.

"NO! Not you. I'll not see my brother do this."

"You do it."

"I'm also three years older! Emmett, do you have any idea what teaching you to take their torture would entail?"

"Jasper, I'm doing this with or without your help and I -"

"I'd have to fucking teach you! I'd have to fucking do it, because it's my fucking job!"

It was Bella who intervened, stepping between us. She pushed Jasper down into a chair and me down into one opposite him.

"Enough, please. Emmett, it's Jasper's job to train the new recruits. It's why he never told you. Jasper, your brother, whether you like it or not, Emmett is no longer a child, and if this is what he wants, neither you nor I can stop him."

"Bella, are you going to ask me to torture my brother?" Jasper asks her, without looking up. "Or, as my captain, are you going to order me to do it?"

"I should be doing both, right now. God knows, Jasper, if my boss got wind of it, he'd kill me himself. I should be ordering you to do this, because if you can't cause him pain, you couldn't kill him if you had to." She pauses. "Do it, Jasper. Do it - or you'll leave me with no choice but to kill you. If I can't trust you, you can't live. Do it, Jasper. Do it!"

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A/N: I'm sorry, i said Tuesday. Didn't anticpate having to translate The Pardoner's Tale, write four essays and a critical theory. Fact is, college comes first - so all i can promise for the next update is next weekend for definate, maybe before. Please review and give me some feedback!

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	7. Bad Jokes

**_A/N: Be honest, how many for you sort of wanted to hurt me after the closure of my last chapter? Sorry. Here, here is the closure to the cliff hanger. Again, thanks for having endless patience with me. Means so much to me!_**

Bad Jokes

EPOV

We both stared at her in horror. Jasper didn't even bother hiding the emotions raging across his face. War broke out inside my brothers head, inside me, and she stood impassive, facing us both down.

"What?" I whispered, then said, then shouted. "Bella, what are you doing?"

"My job. My question is whether your brother will do his."

"I don't want it. If it hurts him, I don't want it."

"Then I'll kill you. You know too much. One of you will die today. So make your choice, Jasper. Make it now."

"No, Bella. I can't and I won't. Kill me if you must, but you'll not touch him. Neither will I. I won't hurt him. Nor will you."

It was, I think, the most awful, most horrendous ten seconds of my life. Bella and Jasper stood there, staring each other down. I was ready to leap in front of him, kill her if she tried it. I put myself between them, and her gaze went to me. And then she smiled. It was triumphant.

"That, Jasper, was exactly what I wanted to hear. And Emmett, I'd hoped you'd do that."

She wandered upstairs. We looked at each other.

"She does this. Tests people. There's always a different answer, always a different thing to say. Depends on the soldier, depends on the question. I don't know where she'll go with this, but you've passed the Bella test, and if she's speaking up for you, then no one will touch you."

"And this is good?"

"It's as good as it'll ever get with Bella. She'll explain in a minute, I'm sure."

"GODDAMNIT, YOU IDIOT, I COULD HAVE FUCKING KILLED YOU!"

"Is that normal?" I ask. He looks bemused.

"It sure as hell isn't." We listen to the conversation, which is getting louder.

"You could have, but you didn't, so it's all good. Must you shout? I have the mother of all hangovers."

"Good! I'm glad you're suffering, because you have no comprehension of what this has been doing to me! Where the hell did you fuck off to?"

"Oh, places to go, people to see. Where did you go anyway? I came back to the house, Dad told me to run, and you were nowhere to be seen. Where is Dad anyway?" Bella throws open the door to the living room and then looks momentarily confused, as if she isn't sure who we are or what we're doing here. It's the young man from the photo. Edward. Her brother.

"This is Emmett." He blanks me, breezing by and hugging Jasper.

"Hi, Jazz. How's tricks?"

"Ask your sister about tricks. Bella, I have to go. It's almost curfew and Alice will be wondering where I've gone."

"Come back tomorrow, at dawn. Bring Alice. There's a lot to discuss."

She sits down, cradling a cup of tea. Edward looks at me for the first time.

"So, where have you been, Bella?"

"I got married."

"She got thrown in a cell, tortured, raped and forced to marry me. Whilst you'd disappeared. Drinking, as it appears."

EdwardPOV

"Excuse me?" The man in the armchair across from me is regarding me with something close to disgust. He's huge, at least fifteen stone, all of it muscle and solid looking muscle too. I have no doubt whatsoever that he outweighs me by at least five stone. He completely dwarfs Bella, even sitting down. And they're married. Actually, now I think of it... I inspect ring fingers. Plain gold wedding bands. Both of them. Well. Fuck me. Married. Tortured. Raped. Whilst I was gone. I put my head in my hands.

"Bella, tell me you at least tried escaping."

"Of course she didn't." Emmett glowers at her. "She sat there and took it, actually."

"Bella there are limits to what The Resistance expects - what I expect. Nobody would have said anything if it'd been an escape in the dead of night."

"But they'd have thought it. It's hard enough being a woman in the Resistance, Edward, you know that. All I've got is their respect, because I can take it."

"Did you try and help her?"

"He was tied up."

"I would have done. She told me off for even thinking it, said she didn't need a knight in shining armour. But never mind what I did and didn't do. Where were you?"

"I was contacting - or trying to contact - England."

"Shhh." Bella looks furious suddenly. "Don't you dare finish that sentence. Upstairs. Now."

We gather again in her room.

"I'll say all this for Jazz's benefit tomorrow, but for now, no talking above a whisper. Not a word. We need to leave. They've not bugged us yet, but I've no doubt there'll be someone round tomorrow to do it. We need to get out. My room's safe - there was never a bug in my room. No bugs anywhere else, as far as I can tell, but you never know. Tomorrow at dawn, we leave, we go. We go to Jasper's. They don't suspect him. Edward, have they done it?" Her voice is controlled, but excitement lies in her eyes. "Have they reached England?"

"Two days ago, we got this on the radios. We use a different frequency to the Centre, and this came through. We lost signal before we could reply." He sets an old voice recorder down and presses play. The quality is poor, voice barely audible over static.

"Is anybody there…Can anyone hear me… if someone can hear me, anyone, contact us…same frequency…is there anybody alive?"

"The original transmission?"

"At base. Not much better quality, but going on the voice…we think it comes from England. We never got a name, and like I said, we lost contact before we could get back to them. There hasn't been a reply since, even though we're trying on the hour, every hour."

"Try more often. And we need to talk about Emmett."

"I'll do it. I know Jasper won't. I heard you testing him."

"I need to know I don't have just people I can trust - I need to know they're human. Edward - Emmett, could you give us a moment?" The dark man nods briefly and departs. We hear the bed creak next door. "Edward, you know what teaching him would entail."

"Of course I do. Jasper will take certain aspects, the aspects that don't involve his brother being hurt directly by him - I defiantly can't do some of it."

"Agreed. Well have to discuss it with Jasper, and with Emmett, but if he's that earnest…"

"Bella, are you sure involving him is a good idea?"

"Explain."

"He's the man the Centre forced you to marry. He is the man you know nothing about - who you don't love, and who doesn't love you. He could betray us all, in a heartbeat, without a qualm."

"He wouldn't do that to Jasper."

"But are you sure you can trust him?"

"I'm positive I can, Edward. I saw something him in whilst we were together, I saw something I can't explain. But I trust him. I don't know why, but everything inside me tells me I can trust him."

BPOV

He meets my eyes. He's sceptical I can tell. But Edward has never questioned my judgement yet, and I've never yet been wrong about someone. He'll trust me still, until I give him a reason not to. And I won't. Emmett will do this.

He agrees to the plan, and at dawn the next day we leave. Alice welcomes us, and Emmett and I find ourselves sharing a room so tiny it can barely hold us both. Edward isn't staying, there just isn't room. He'll be bunking down at Carlisle and Esme's house. We prepare ourselves. We shall fight. Soon.


End file.
